VIERA, Fla. — As they were introducing the Nationals' starting lineup just now, the background music could only be described as "The Chipmunks Sing AC/DC." Is it time to go home yet?

Nope, we've still got two more games down here, starting today with the Braves. Fredi Gonzalez is using only relievers in this one, so Eric O'Flaherty will actually start and then pitch only one inning. Ross Detwiler starts for the Nationals. This is actually Stephen Strasburg's day to throw, but instead of facing a division rival, he already pitched in a minor-league game this morning, his final tune-up before Opening Day.

Bryce Harper, as you know, isn't in the Nationals' lineup. All the other regulars are, though. As opposed to the split-squad game taking place simultaneously in Jupiter against the Cardinals. There are no regulars down there, not even anyone from big-league camp.

I'm surprised Bernadina isn't playing today – he needs the at-bats. Maybe he's in the minor league game against the Cards?Slidell2, it's a quirk of the scheduling – MLB gave them a split-squad day pretty late in the spring training season, and I imagine Davey didn't want to break up the ML guys while they're finishing up their defensive tune-ups for the season, so minor leaguers it has to be.

Wonder when the Barves will shut down Medlen? He only threw 138 innings last year. 30% more would be about 180 innings, which wouldn't be a full season, in all likelihood.Would be nice to see someone else questioned about a shutdown.

Are we expecting a weather-reduced crowd at the Yankees-Nats exhibition on Friday? My unscientific survey reveals some reluctance on the part of worker-bees to take off Friday as well as for the Monday opener.

Puig was sent down, a guy who batted over .500 in spring training (though he didn't draw any walks). Listening to the analysis of why–I mean, what does it take to make a team out of spring training??–was interesting. First of all, pitchers who are trying to build up arm strength throw a lot of fast balls. Who hits fast balls well? Our Kid. Secondly, if you are a pitcher who will face him during the season, do you regard it as your job to teach him to hit breaking balls? Um, probably not. Without Pitch F/x, I would speculate Bryce has gotten a pretty steady diet of fastballs for those reasons. It's fun to watch his hitting "streak", but it isn't much more significant than batting practice. Probably the same for Mikey Morse and his unreal spring stats. Wait until the bell rings, then we'll see.

STH like myself were forced to buy the Friday game as part of our packages. Usually the attendance at the exhibition game consists of STH forced to buy the ticket plus bandwagon fans of the opposition. Last year, Red Sox. This year, Yankees. STH are probably more likely than bandwagon fans to stay home if the weather's not great, but either way the announced paid attendance will be the same.

I am going to Friday's game (can't go to Opening Day because of Work). I know quite a few STH's that want to go but can't because of the Sequestor hanging over their heads. They elected to take Monday off to go to Opening Day.

Thanks, Tcostant. I wonder, however, if Medlen really should approach 200 innings. Not my problem, of course. I just remember last year everyone saying how smart the Barves were to start him as a reliever, to avoid the innings limit. Of course, they had no idea he was going to be the starter he was.

I have to say, since my primary method of following all the daytime games is MLB's GameDay web thingy, I'll be really glad when spring training is over and the score tracker will actually, you know, work. Without having to constantly refresh for updates or use Twitter or NI for the same purpose. If nothing else, I miss seeing the balls and strikes play out.

Knoxville. A lot of people are having to work numerous hours planning in case of the sequester results in furloughs or trying to find ways to avoid the furloughs entirely. Other's don't want to burn PTO in case they do get furloughed (they are hoping they can use PTO time and still get paid – they know it's a pipe dream, but want to save as much PTO time as possible)

Even the braves guy is trashing their pitcher today:Mark Bowman‏@mlbbowman1mForty years ago Davey Johnson hit 43 homers for the Braves. I'm pretty sure he could hit one today if gets in there before Rodriguez exits

MicheleS, totally understandable that people would want to conserve leave during these uncertain times, but unfortunately you can't use leave to avoid losing pay during a furlough. See Question E1 on page 11 of this OPM Guidance.Great idea to add nicknames and their origins to the Glossary. If anyone writes up the Shark, be sure to include Ladson's rear guard action to stop that nickname in favor of "Speed Racer." I still remember the online poll he put up asking readers to choose, and he lost 90%- 10%.

From posts way back – thanks to Sec. 3 my sofa for putting the JayB rants in perspective – I am wondering if you have one of those fish over your sofa?Mac – I am not trying to be argumentative but my 20 game schedule includes that exhibition game as game #21 so I am not sure you can honestly say we were forced to buy it. In my mind, they gave it to us. The one disappointment I did have is the Nationals forcing us who have smaller plans to buy the opening day ticket. That had been a free game as well up until this year. I understand we are now a successful franchise and they don't need to do as much but it was still a nice gesture. I am surprised the red carpet points returned although certain games are now priced much higher. Anyway, I on Friday I start at Justins, 3 or 4 innings of exhibition baseball and then make decisions on the rest of the afternoon. I am gearing up for 9 strong innings on Monday.Go Nats!!

In my NatsFitness quest, I'm taking THIS game as the game for which I will do the push ups. Not the horrible loss to the Cards. For some reason, I think it was Jason Marquis who first compared Wilson to a buffalo. And FP has mentioned it several times. It stuck. I'm starting to get really excited about Real Baseball. I thought I might be behind schedule but it turns out my spring training schedule is going to have me peak on April 1.

"Mac – I am not trying to be argumentative but my 20 game schedule includes that exhibition game as game #21 so I am not sure you can honestly say we were forced to buy it. In my mind, they gave it to us."And you gave them the money to pay for it. Do the math. You can't buy a partial plan without buying that game. That translates into being forced to buy it."The one disappointment I did have is the Nationals forcing us who have smaller plans to buy the opening day ticket. That had been a free game as well up until this year."It was never a free game. It was one of the games you paid for as part of your package. Typically they charge a certain amount per regular season game in the package, and the exhibition game costs half the regular season game cost. Again, do the math.Last year, I had already paid in full for the ST package (Opening Day included) before they scheduled the exhibition game. Once that game was scheduled, I got a call from my rep asking me what credit card I wanted to use to pay for the exhibition game. I had no choice to opt out.

According to the beat writers, Abad and Maldonado have been sent to the minors, and Owings and Rivero will go after tomorrow. No decision on the final bullpen slot; H-Rod and JC Romero will both come north with the team for Friday's final exhibition game.

OK, I will argue as well. I am charged a certain amount for my 20 games and get a season ticket discount. The price for those 20 games is a certain value and that 21st game is not added in to my cost so like Ivan said and like I tried to say earlier, it was free. Now, I don't have a full season ticket package so if they then charged you for that game you have a point but I paid the same this year as last year for my partial package. Last year I got both the Red Sox game and opening day. This year I got the Yankee's and no opening day but my 20 games still came out to the same total. Either way, we are both fans, we both want success and hopefully we will be paying huge amounts for post season play as well.Go Nats!

"And I don't believe they charged you for the Redsox game last year"As I said, I got a phone call to give them a credit card number for the ten bucks or whatever it was – AFTER I had already paid the full amount on the invoice they sent. Then the charge showed up on my statement. What other aspects of modern finance do you not believe in?

Regarding the exhibition game, anything better than paying $150 (plus another $50 to park) for a meaningless Skins game where everyone is out to not hurt themselves (unless M Shanahan decides to put in RG3 as part of his rehab)